Gail Simmons combines wildlife with the Northern Lights in Norway
's Lofoten
and Vesterålen Islands, where nature and myth mingle.

It’s a fair bet you’ve turned up somewhere pretty unusual when a scoop about an orphaned elk makes front-page news. But those were the headlines of the local paper the morning I left my hotel in Vesterålen for a sea safari in the chilly North Atlantic Ocean.

It was the first day of a long weekend in Norway’s Lofoten and Vesterålen Islands, made possible by a direct charter flight from Gatwick introduced earlier this year, and I hoped to see some wildlife and view the famous Northern Lights. It seemed like the proverbial good idea at the time. Now here I was, swaddled neck to ankle in a survival suit and bouncing over the waves in a Rib (rigid inflatable boat). Marta, our guide, pointed out white-tailed sea eagles perching on the rocks. Behind us, great crags sheltered tiny fishing villages.

Marta, a Spaniard, came to Vesterålen to study the whale population here. The day before a pod of sperm whales had been spotted in the harbour feeding off migrating mackerel, and we were hoping to see them again today. Alas, we didn’t – or so we thought. It was only later that one of my companions spotted what looked like a huge whale in one of her photos, while we’d been looking the other way at the fulmars, eider ducks, shags and sea eagles.

Orcas off the coast of Lofoten

I’d anticipated finding wildlife here. What I hadn’t foreseen were the islands’ extraordinary human inhabitants, like the man taking his pet llama for a walk, or the enormous Viking in full Highland regalia – Vesterålen native – who greeted us at Marmelkroken café. He’d gutted herring in the local docks aged just 10 and competed many times in the Highland Games, even pulling for the Queen Mother’s team at tug o’ war.

Nor did I expect to meet Nigel Turrell, a British ex-marine who had been posted here two decades ago, fallen in love with a local lass and was now running Andøy Friluftssenter, a wilderness hotel overlooking one of Vesterålen’s most beautiful bays. Before a dinner of stir-fried elk, served with aniseed-flavoured aquavit, Nigel had taken us snowshoeing in the mountains behind his hotel, and showed us how locals drill holes in the lake ice to fish.

But even after 20 years, Nigel was a mere blow-in. The true locals of Vesterålen are the Sami, whose ancestral lands stretch across the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. We visited a couple, Leila and Arild Inga, who hosted us in their lavvu (tent), the traditional Sami abode.

While we lunched on reindeer stew, Leila told us tales of nomadic existence, which they still cling to despite the encroachment of modern life. She sang us Sami joiks (folk songs) and talked of the old pagan gods who still haunt the land. The Sami may now drive skidoos instead of sleds, but old beliefs live on.

Over in the neighbouring Lofoten archipelago, a 30-minute ferry ride from Vesterålen, the scenery was just as dramatic. Clouds parted to reveal the ragged peaks of ancient, secretive mountains, and I could quite believe trolls still lurked here undiscovered.

Lofoten is a landscape where nature and myth mingle. One day we sailed into the aptly named Trollfjord, majestic in its icy silence, and gasped as gigantic sea eagles swooped to grasp fish with their terrifying talons. It was like a scene from a Norse saga.

In Svolvær, Lofoten’s tiny “capital”, I strolled out from my cosy hotel into town to see the cod drying on hjell, or tall wooden racks, in the time-honoured way. The whiff of stockfish filled the cold Arctic air. This really was a place like no other I’d ever been.

The only occasion I wondered whether coming to the Arctic so early in the year really was such a good idea was when I found myself rolling in the snow one night at Nigel’s wilderness hotel, wearing nothing more than a swimsuit, in customary Nordic fashion.

But if freezing briefly was the price I had to pay for steaming in his wood-fired hot tub, a bottle of Arctic Beer in my hand and watching the Northern Lights shimmer among the stars, then it was well worth the ordeal.

DID YOU KNOW?

The name of Lofoten describes its shape: 'Lynx Foot’

Lofoten and Vesterålen essentials

GETTING THERE

Norwegian (020 8099 7254; norwegian.no) flies from London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh via Oslo to Evenes, from £170 return. Or take one of the packages that offer a direct charter flight from Gatwick to Evenes. You can hire a car for five days from £397 with Avis (0844 581 0147; avis.co.uk) or take the Arctic Buss (0047 9269 9060; arcticbuss.no) to Svolvær on Lofoten. Further information at Visit Norway (020 7389 8800; visitnorway.co.uk and northernnorway.com).